~1~
San Diego, beautiful you! You flaunted your beautiful So Ca weather to all the bloggers visiting. Mahwa!!
~2~
Blogher11 -3,600 attended. It was amazing, being surrounded by so many woman, all different but passionate about blogging. I'm shy, but I had no problem approaching a table during a mealtime or for a session and introducing myself, meeting other bloggers and exchanging business cards. Where else, I have to ask- will people keep asking you **what is the name of your blog? **what do you blog about? **Why did you start blogging? **what are you passionate about?
It was, really, a blogger's heaven.
~3~
The hotel: The Marriott and the venue: the San Diego convention center. Both really lovely. Loved, loved, loved that there was a Starbucks both in my hotel (The Marriott) and at the convention center (very welcomed the morning I overslept and missed breakfast!) The staff at the Marriott were just over-the-top helpful. Any event in the hotel had plenty of signs pointing the way, and even staff every few feet to direct you. Just wow. On the last day, the Marriott had a checked luggage area for those of us who checked out and didn't want to lug our luggage all over the convention center that day. <3
~4~
The parties: the events sponsored by Blogher were fun, I enjoyed them. This was my first Blogher, I didn't really know what to expect. I was busy enough with the Blogher parties to not feel left-out of all the other off-site sponsored parties. However, later after hearing about how many other parties there were and how nice/fun..and about all the swag...I kind of wondered about the sponsors and pr people missing the mark with the purpose of branding/PR and networking. It seemed like the same bloggers were hitting all the parties, and most of them were young. I kind of wondered why so many of the older than 20 crowd were left out- we tend to be the group with more buying power...
~5~
I met The Bloggess! Squee! She hosted the people's party, and I made it a point to be there, I really wanted to meet her. I was a bit disappointed she didn't bring Beyoncé along for photo opps, but then again, dragging along a 5ft. chicken probably would have been a logistical nightmare. She was very gracious, warm and genuine. I really liked her. Her many posts about spending major parts of conferences hiding in the bathroom really helped me not worry so much about my shyness. I think her honesty helped many shy women feel like we were all in this together, we could do it and we weren't the only freaks.
~6~
I had a blast, and will for sure go to blogher again when it hits the West Coast. There were a few things I should have done to make it better, though.
- I meant to make a list of bloggers I interact with frequently- a must meet list with twitter info so I could contact them and arrange meet-ups. I did not do this, and while I did meet a few key people I really wanted to meet, there were so many that I didn't meet and later wished I had. Next time I am making a list!
- take more photos. I left my SLR at home, since I took the train down and didn't want to be dragging a ton of stuff with me. I only have a few shots on my iphone
- take more photos with me and friends in them...actually take any with me in them. I have a token couple.
- figure out how to connect with PR people. I was a bit at a loss and did not have a plan
- plan to go to dinner with friends ahead of time- and tweet where we are going so other bloggers feeling lonely can join us.
~7~
I tried to have a good mix of session-going, socializing, expo-hall visiting and down-time, but I was a bit unsure how to do it all effectively. Next time, I need to have a plan. I left it up to chance, the whole meeting brands thing- and it didn't really happen.
~8~
The expo-hall/meeting with brands/swag thing was disappointment for me. The expo-hall seemed to me, to be one big confusing area where vendors handed out free samples/coupons/signed you up for chances to win a giveaway...but I didn't see anyway to meaningfully connect with the brands. In most cases I left my business card and hoped for the best. Free samples were not the reason I went to Blogher.
~9~
the high spots of my blogher experience were meeting and hanging out with The Farmer Files. She was my Blogher BFF for the conference and made the conference for me. I also loved meeting and hanging with Katie from Swell Easy Living, finally meeting the divine Kit from Blogging Dangerously {squee!}, meeting & chatting with the Bitter Divorcee and attending the Pathfinder series with PW on the panel. More on her later...
~10~
there was no diet coke to be had. Seriously. I finally found a 3$ and some change bottle in the hotel gift shop. I had several women pounce on me at lunch when I pulled it out of my bag. Pepsi, loved that you sponsored Blogher11- big kiss-kiss...it's just that some addictions are too ingrained to be overcome...